Guinea Bissau: President, Army Chief Assassinated

2 March 2009
allAfrica.com

Both Guinea Bissau's president and its army chief have been assassinated within hours of one another, apparently as a result of rivalry between them, news agencies reported Monday.

President João Bernardo Vieira of Guinea Bissau was killed by soldiers, a military spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Spokesman Zamora Induta told AFP: "President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning."

Tagme, Guinea Bissau's military leader, had been killed in a bomb attack on army headquarters in Bissau on Sunday. Induta alleged to AFP that Vieira was "one of the main people responsible" for Tagme's killing.

Later on Monday, the Associated Press reported Luis Sanca, a security adviser to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., as confirming Vieira's death.

Guinea Bissau has long been unstable, its ruling elite at odds and riven by alleged assassination and coup plots.

Last November, elements of the military launched an unsuccessful attack on the president's residence soon after elections.

The International Crisis Group recently described the country's institutions as "structurally feeble" and warned that there was a permanent threat of military intervention in politics.

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